When working with a mechanical apparatus, it is often desirable to connect an element of the apparatus or the entire apparatus to an external object such as a shaft. The connected object or shaft can arise from nearly any source and range from a free standing or floating shaft to a securely positioned shaft or other object specifically designed for mounting an apparatus. A shaft can even be an element of another apparatus.
Depending on the mechanical situation, it is often desirable not only to make a connection to a shaft but to lock whatever is connected to the shaft in a particular orientation with respect to the shaft at least temporarily. Subsequently, it can become desirable to change the orientation of the connected or mounted element. To do this various kinds of locking devices have been provided in the past which can be locked in place and released for adjustment.
In general the state of the art for rotating and then locking a device at any point along a shaft is to use three separate mechanisms: one that allows translation along and rotation about the shaft, and two others that allow rotation about two mutually perpendicular axes that are themselves perpendicular to the axis of the shaft.
The complexity and size of an assembly of mechanisms to do this, along with the inefficiency of having to orient and then lock three mechanisms to achieve a particular position or orientation is cumbersome at best and can be frustrating for the operator as the operator attempts to align a connection in a three dimensional space. A single mechanism that concurrently allows rotation about all three axes and translation along the axis of the shaft in a single motion and is then fixed in place by a single locking motion is sometimes used.
Commonly, such a solution would use a spherical alignment bearing or joint with the bearing housing and the spherical core both split and would incorporate a clamping mechanism on the housing to tighten the housing on the core and consequently the core on the shaft. However, to achieve maximum clamping pressure of the bearing on the shaft, the split in the housing and the split in the core need to be aligned in substantially the same plane.
This again makes such a system difficult to use causing frustration by the user and unreliable clamping with variable clamping forces needed depending on how the core is aligned with the clamp. A better method is needed for clamping releasably, reliably and adjustably while aligning and maintaining alignment of the apparatus that is being clamped and positioned together without the need to focus on alignment of the elements comprising the core and clamping mechanism.